Sara Gideon, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine; Me making phone calls to voters in swing states
In this issue:
- Please join me and Somerville Democrats this Sunday, July 26, 3-5 pm (and/or any Sunday through November 1) and every Tuesday evening from 6-8 pm for a virtual phone bank from the comfort of your home. Call voters in key swing states such as Pennsylvania and Maine to help elect Joe Biden and flip the Senate to the Democrats.
- Why I am asking you to use your voice to save our democracy, our country and the world: Phone banking is the most impactful and powerful thing YOU can do to get rid of President Trump and flip the U.S. Senate to Democratic control.
Please join me and Somerville Democrats this Sunday, July 26, 3-5 pm (and/or any Sunday through November 1) and every Tuesday evening from 6-8 pm for a virtual phone bank from the comfort of your home. Call voters in key swing states such as Pennsylvania and Maine to help elect Joe Biden and flip the Senate to the Democrats.
Here are links to sign up, and a link to the Somerville Democrats National Organizing 2020 page, where you can sign up to get notices each week about phone banking opportunities:
Sign up for the Sunday, July 26, 3-5 pm phone bank: here
Sign up for the Tuesday evening, July 28, 6-8 pm phone bank: here
Get on the Somerville Democrats email list for future phone banks: here
I’ve been calling swing states with the Somerville Democrats every Sunday afternoon for the past two months and Tuesday evenings when I don’t have a meeting. It’s been really fun to gather virtually with friends and neighbors and talk to voters in key swing states about voting for Joe Biden and other Democrats. And it feels super meaningful to actually be doing the most impactful think we can do to win back our country – talking to voters.
Winning this election is all about voter contact. And phone calls are the warmest form of voter contact by far in our current Covid reality. If likely Democrat voters actually vote – as they did in 2008 and 2012 for Barack Obama. but did not in 2016 for Hillary Clinton – Joe Biden will win. Many of these Democratic voters are not regular voters and will need encouragement, nudging, and human contact with other voters. This is especially true this year due to the novelty of voting by mail and health concerns about voting in person due to Covid-19.
We start the phone banks with a Zoom meeting where everyone introduces themselves, says a quick hello and shares why they are there. There is a quick orientation to the script, and training for those who are new to phone banking. And then people start calling voters.
We’re fortunate to have Zachary Going (a young SomDems leader) as our Captain on Sundays calling voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states. He is a super warm guy and does a great job of making new callers feel welcome. He conducts the training and helps people who are new to phone banking get set up. Zach is available on Zoom to answer questions and deal with any challenges for the full two hours.
Richard Wood runs the Tuesday evening Maine phone banks in the same warm, friendly and helpful fashion. The goal of the Maine phone banks is to defeat Republican Senator Susan Collins to help flip the Senate, win Maine for Biden, and re-elect Jared Golden to the U.S. House of Representatives. We will be working with the Maine Democratic Party and the campaign of Sara Gideon, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine.
We started the Sunday phone banks with less than a dozen callers and now we are up to two dozen plus…and growing. This past Sunday July 19 we had 44 people calling voters in Pennsylvania! We need your participation. It takes an army to win a national election!
It is exciting and rewarding to be actively doing something to change our country’s leadership and politics for the better and to be part of an enormous and growing national movement to win the November 3 election for the Democrats. We need more, as many volunteers as possible, to achieve our goals: win the Presidency, flip the Senate, and win control of more state legislatures. These changes would improve tens of millions of Americans’ lives. I believe this election may be a once in a generation, perhaps a once in a lifetime, opportunity to shift the course of our nation, the world, and history.
I hope you will join us this Sunday, July 26, 3-5 pm, next Tuesday, July 28 from 6-8 PM, and/or on future Sundays or Tuesdays as you are available.
Why I am asking you to use your voice to save our democracy, our country and the world: Phone banking is the most impactful and powerful thing YOU can do to get rid of President Trump and flip the U.S. Senate to Democratic control.
Phone banking is not as unpleasant and uncomfortable as you may fear. It can even be fun! If you are hesitant to make phone calls to strangers, you are not alone.
So I beg you to reconsider. I beg you to try out phone banking. I beg you to try to work through your discomfort and unease and do what needs to be done to help save our democracy, our country and the world. (This is no exaggeration: four more years of President Trump and Republicans stopping progress in dealing with climate change may doom us and especially our children to a world of constant, deadly environmental catastrophes.) Phone calls to the key swing states are the most impactful and powerful thing we can do now to affect the outcome of the November 3 election.
You may think that calling strangers will be uncomfortable, but it’s different this year. To my surprise, I have found these phone calls to be warmer and more enjoyable than I expected. Like so many people, I have avoided making political phone calls in the past. But this year is different, for two reasons. Due to the Coronavirus epidemic, people are less busy, more isolated, and more willing to talk with a stranger. And voters understand how critically important this election is for the future of our country.
Please give me 3 ½ minutes more of your time to watch this video of Rebecca Riccio, a single mom and educator, and a volunteer with Swing Left Boston. She explains why making phone calls to voters is something you should do, better than I ever could: watch video
Here’s an excerpt: “Before you say phone banking is not for me, please hear me out while I explain why I am asking you to use your voice to save our democracy…Covid-19 is going to make voting tricky this year. Many people will be voting by mail for the first time. Others will have to take special precautions to vote safely in person. We need an army of volunteers making sure everyone who wants to vote is registered, knows how to vote, and can vote safely. Doing this by phone is essential.”
To those of you who have been writing postcards and letters to voters in key swing states, urging them to register to vote, to sign up to vote by mail, and to make sure to vote in the November 3 election, I say “Thank you and bless you.” Don’t stop!
Postcards and letters are making a huge difference. For example, there are now 400,000 more Democrats signed up to vote by mail in Florida than there are Republicans. In 2018, it was even. This is largely the result of postcards and phone calls to follow them up to Florida Democratic voters. This is so important because research has shown that in past elections, Florida Democrats who are signed up to vote by mail actually vote at an 87% rate, whereas Florida voters who are not signed up to vote by mail actually vote at only a 55% rate. So vote by mail is a super get-out-the-vote tool! And, as important, it will help people stay safe.
Postcards and letters are complimentary to phone calls – some people will never answer a phone call from a stranger. (But we can and do leave messages.) So please, don’t stop writing those postcards and letters!
Phone banking is the gold standard of campaigning now and the key for Democrats to win the November 3 election. Please stretch yourself and try it out.
Mark Niedergang, Ward 5 City Councilor
(617) 629-8033
